I've seen it twice now. Once here and once back in Oklahoma. Two pastors on television, one giving his Sunday message, the other doing a commercial, both talking about how great their ministry is. The one here, being more Southern, was a bit more genteel about it. The one back in Oklahoma just to put it out there for his Sunday morning, and television, audience to hear. The idea is: "Come here, because this place is happening." Which really means: "Come here, because I'm happening." (Fight me if you will, but the one means the other, and deep down we all know it.) The problem is that I know both these guys well enough to know better. They really aren't all that happening. I've seen them enough in other contexts to say so. Now, hear me. I don't think it's bad that they aren't "all that." It's just that I don't think anybody is. And that's okay. It really is. My uncomfortableness with it is that pastors try hard to make it seem otherwise.
A recent essay in Leadership Journal on pastoral failures got me thinking about this. I mean, no one ever sees a television commercial which plugs a church by saying, "Come here, because this place is a mess. In fact, I'm not that great of a pastor. I fail in so many ways. And the congregation isn't much better. But come, let's hear the gospel together." I keep hoping to hear it, but alas.
There are a myriad of reasons this is the case, some of which are well-summarized in the aforementioned essay. If anything, and the essay doesn't mention it this way, it is because we are more enamored with being (or at least looking) successful instead of being wise.
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